A new biopic film about one of country music’s most interesting, iconic, influential, and troubled acts is being developed. Real life best friends Ethan Hawke and Alessandro Nivola are teaming up to play Charlie and Ira Louvin, known collectively as The Louvin Brothers, in a film adaptation of Charlie Louvin’s famous account of his life in country music, Satan Is Real.

The Louvin Brothers are given credit for being one of country music’s best examples of blood harmony and close singing, and their beloved recordings went onto greatly influence country, folk, and Gospel artists for decades. Though Charlie was a devout Christian and the duo was just as well known for their Gospel music as secular country, his brother Ira was a troubled soul and an alcoholic, famous for tirades and antics, and for dying in a car crash in 1965. The struggles of the duo also resulted in a lot of the inspiration for their music and the true-to-life cautionary tales, including their signature song, “Satan Is Real.”

“It’s such an important expression to us,” says Ethan Hawke. “It sounds both violent and beautiful and the music should be that. It’s aggressive, it’s electric, it’s strange. It’s not Brooklyn folk rock. It’s not wannabe cool guy country. It’s hillbilly gospel music. They’re singing these songs and then backstage they’re taking speed and hitting on girls and beating the shit out of each other.”

Born Lonnie Loudermilk and Charlie Elzer Loudermilk respectively, the two brothers from Alabama had a string of hits through the 50’s and into the early 60’s, and were asked to join the Grand Ole Opry in 1955. The duo broke up in 1963 due to Ira’s drinking, two years before he died in a car accident. Charlie Louvin would go on to perform as a solo artist, and the duo was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2001.

Ethan says that he will be working with Alessandro Nivola to attempt to perfect the Louvin’s “blood harmony,” and the two will be recording some music to present to potential underwriters for the film’s development. At the moment, Satan Is Real is still in the preliminary stages, with a screenplay being adapted by Jon Raymond and Shelby Gaines from Charlie Louvin’s book. The film is being directed by Phil Morrison, who has worked with Alessandro Nivola before. Ethan Hawke and Alessandro Nivola have also worked with each other previously, and feel they can pull off the chemistry to bring the magic and struggle of the Louvin Brothers to life. They will be presenting the film to buyers at the Cannes Film Festival, which is occurring this week in France.

This will not be the first time the story of the Louvin Brothers will be told in film. Country music filmmaker and videographer Blake Judd released a documentary film in 2011 called Still Rattlin’ The Devil’s Cage in 2011, which profiled Charlie Louvin and featured interviews with George Jones, Emmylou Harris, Marty Stuart, Alison Krauss, and others about the duo’s lasting influence. Blake Judd and co-director Keith Neltner worked closely with Satan Is Real co-author Benjamin Whitmer on the film.

Satan Is Real is still in the early stages, and as we’ve seen with promised biopics on Merle Haggard, and two on George Jones, sometimes these projects can take time to develop, if they ever develop at all. But with the success of biopic films on Queen, Johnny Cash, and others, and the rise in interest in music films like A Star Is Born, the time is hot for telling the story of music in movie form, and The Louvin Brothers definitely have a story worth telling.

This is right up my ally, both because of The Louvin Brothers and because Ethan Hawke is one of my all-time favorite actors. He was brilliant in First Reformed, doing masterful work with Paul Schrader’s script. And, of course, I’ve been a fan since Dead Poets Society. Given First Reformed’s similar theme of faith and frailty, it looks like Hawke is interested in exploring these type of characters, which is perfectly alright by me!

Love Ethan Hawke too, but First Reformed was a drab and dreadful movie. For my money Ethan Hawke’s best recent performance was in Training Day. He had the perfect “wtf did I get myself into?” vibe down pat the whole movie. Excellent stuff. Dead Poets Society was great too, obviously.

I fully expected to hate First Reformed based on the synopsis, but I was captivated the whole time. Even if you don’t like the script and find it too “drab and dreadful,” you have to at least admire Hawke’s performance. It is one of those movies that critics tend to love (93% on Rotten Tomatoes) but more mixed with the audience. I get that. Training Day is certainly one of his greatest performances as well and has plenty of crowd-pleasing tense action throughout and a dynamic co-star with Denzel.

You’re right Hawke was good, in context of the material. I guess I had more of a problem with the story/script. It just seemed like such a patronizing, ham-fisted, hopeless story with some really absurd scenes thrown in that seemed absolutely out of place (the flying scene, for example). The more I think about it, the more I can say I honestly hated that movie.

Yeah, I understand why some people would hate it. It perhaps helps that I’m familiar with the Dutch Reformed tradition and very familiar with its sister tradition, Scots Presbyterian. I work at a Presbyterian seminary. All of my Presby friends loved the movie. I’m also interested in Paul Schrader’s work, and he got an Oscar nom for this film.

A few years ago my wife and I visited our favorite record store, Manifest in Charlotte NC. My wife went one way I went the other just browsing. Thousands of CDs in the store. We like folk. alt country some country and 1960s hits.

When we got back to the car we compared purchases. Among other things she got was The Louvin Brothers hits sung by various artists. I got The Louvin Brothers Greatest Hits. Damn. Is that weird or what.

I grew up and still live in a geographic region known as “Sand Mountain” in northeast Alabama. It’s a region that is culturally unlike any other part of Alabama, and an amazing number of influential musicians and singers have come from this area. At the core lies church. That’s where most of these folks were exposed to music, and it seems like every family has at least a couple of people who play musical instruments. I met Charlie once at his farm near Henager, AL He was a genuinely humble and nice person. I hope they do this story justice, because it is an amazing tale.

I’d love to appear on the soundtrack.
Performing one of my Grandfather Ira and grand uncle Charlie’s songs or perform a song I wrote.
I would consider it a great honor and privilege to be a part of or contribute anything to this movie.🤘👍😁